There are two aspects toserver security and privacy for a good VPN service:
The first is whether the best VPN for privacy provider's servernetwork is secure and cannot be hacked into by criminals trying to sniff data
and personal information or get information about the overall network
configuration and principal server.
The second is the location ofthe servers. If all the servers AND the VPN provider's location are in
cooperative regions such as the United States and Europe, the security is about
as good as using your local ISP.
If none of the servers are innon-cooperative or off shore locations, then data retention laws apply to that
VPN provider just as if they were your ISP.
A recent criminalinvestigation involving the encrypted email provider, Hushmail, which is based
in Canada, is a case in point. Unbeknown to one of its users, Hushmail (against
its stated privacy policy) logged and cached data about the user for months and
delivered that information to government authorities in another country
pursuant to court orders (this was a run of the mill criminal- not terrorism or
human trafficking).
Had Hushmail been located inPanama or some other off shore location, it is less likely that Hushmail would
have acted on behalf of the police authorities.
If the VPN provider isphysically located in a cooperative jurisdiction but has servers in non-cooperative
jurisdictions like Panama, Russia, China, then this is better privacy.
But the highest privacy is ifBOTH the physical location of the VPN provider and at least some of their
servers are in non-cooperative off shore locations.
Then data retention lawscannot be enforced and the VPN provider is far less likely to breach its stated
privacy policy to log, cache and hand over your data/information/IPs.
Discover privacytools respecting VPNs tools onPrivacyTools Protect your online identity data Curated list to find the best
VPN for you.
Buying A VPN Service
A VPN or Virtual Private Network ensures the security andprivacy of a private or public network. This is done by using a system or
protocol whereby the user's computer is assigned a new IP address which is
owned by the VPN. All of the Internet traffic of the user is channelled to the
VPN server.
Once there, it is decrypted and allowed to travel to the newIP address. The user's Internet service Provider will only see a single stream
of encrypted data stream between the user and the VPN server. The ISP will not
be able to log and monitor or control the user's internet usage.
What are the advantagesof a VPN?
In this day of hacking online accounts, unsolicited datatracking, security and privacy are important concerns of those who use the
Internet extensively for work.
Apart from a virtual firewall, up to 256 bit SSL encryptionsecurity and hiding your ISP IP address, the other benefits of using a VPN are
unrestricted speed and bandwidth and access to blocked websites.
Ads on the internet are blocked. Most of them have apps onAndroid and iOS and so can be accessed on mobile phones also. It can be
accessed from multiple server locations, wherever you are.
Cost wise, what are thekinds of VPN?
Free VPN services offers it at no cost, but they have to beextensively tested by others before you decide to make it yours, because many
free VPN services turn out to be nasty experiences. Your privacy could be
compromised in that they sell your data to third parties. Or they provide
outdated encryption that is easily hacked. The ramifications encourage people
to go for paid VPN services. And at very reasonable rates, it is not a big deal
either.
Paid VPN usually take your privacy concerns more seriouslyas you are paying for them. They have strong encryption and do not store
traffic logs.
There are many paid VPN service vendors. It would help to gothrough some of the rankings available online and read customer reviews of the
top five or ten.
Once you have picked the VPN provider, you can check theirwebsite for payment options
Payment Options
· Credit card or Debit cards. Unionpay is a Chinese bankcard.
· BitCoin, which is a crypto currency is a revolutionary,secure payment service based on peer to peer network. The advantage of BitCoin
payment is that there is no middleman controlling the payment. It is an open
source virtual currency that cannot be traced back to you. It is called an
anonymous payment option.
· PayPal an online payment service where one sets up anaccount to make payments. There are no merchant fees involved in PayPal
payments. But their legal department may not support certain transactions and
they are not present in all countries.
· Other payment merchants that offer online paymentsolutions to VPN providers around the world are Ali Pay), CASHU, Payment Wall
and Skrill. Explore more
